^ Well, I won't even try to comfort you, I'll just easily admit there's quite a bunch of things, like tons of high-rise landmarks, mansions and stuff from the US that we French would be quite very pleased to steal. Seriously, the US is far from being ugly. It's plainly obvious. You know, sometimes, grass seems greener on the other side as they say, but in fact to each their own problems. There are some both in France and in the US, it's just not necessarily the same.

The great point about Europe is very well known by forumers here. It's that most people over here don't mind putting their cars aside and relying on mass transit, which of course allows a better use of space for dense urban developments. It seems that more and more in the US are converging to that point, though, maybe from observing European cities whose many are spectacular simply by their densities.

Right now in France, we're facing some bad budget issues, that is delaying our most important public projects. The HSR line linking Bordeaux to Toulouse is estimated at €5.9 bi, won't be operational before at least 2024. The section to Dax would cost €3.9 bi, not before (still at least) 2027. Further to Hendaye is not even mentioned. In other words, don't think about it before the 2030s. My hope is if the national economy finally gets better within the few coming years, better efforts may eventually be consented.

BTW, trains obviously don't mean giving up on cars or on airplanes (Toulouse will remain the center of aeronautics in the country, don't worry about that). It's just better to have everything! That's helpful greediness.

__________________
psst... A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. (John 13:34)
I like bass. Give me some.

Amart's latest update of Bassins à Flots. Looks like he's right about this thing below, it looks like a good idea.

It would originally be some sort of random little warehouse. I can't tell when it's been put there. The lower original facade looks so random that I couldn't say whether it's from the 1930s or 60s. Anyway, they restored it, then added a couple of brand new floors above, which one can easily see. The result is pretty unusual, should give a bit of a peculiar character to that streetwall.

This is another warehouse of the area that they restored, adding a contemporary extension to it, but that one looks much less random, definitely from the 19th century.

There's likely a restaurant among other things in there. I can't remember what they said about it. But they did a good job to the sidewalk as well.

No cheap tar out there, eh?

Below's a student residence. Sober local stone facade to a side of it, seemingly to fit with some older things around, then other parts of the facade gets funky or something.

The rest is yet a complete mess of construction lost in the middle of cranes.
A last thing though, Amart says he doesn't like this cladding.

mm, looks like some corrugated sheet metal painted in shades of blue. Whatever, it should end up drowned within the surrounding density anyway.
Kinda like this, lol.

__________________
psst... A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. (John 13:34)
I like bass. Give me some.

To the upper left of the picture, you can see the 4th/5th story of the building wasn't there originally, because it's not the same very local stone. But it looks like they added it pretty long ago.
Old downtown Bordeaux is such a freaking original gem, you can figure it all out pretty quickly.
Around that spot, definitely recently cleaned up.

Cleaning up of a church older than anything in the entire Americas, except of course for natives...

__________________
psst... A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. (John 13:34)
I like bass. Give me some.

Sure, I didn't say it was wrong, did I? Au contraire, today they could do a much better job in doing that, like some nice glass above the usual 4 floors of pierre de taille, that could certainly be lovely.

__________________
psst... A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. (John 13:34)
I like bass. Give me some.

The building was not built. Forty-storeyed top, the building would have been allocated to offices, restaurant and post office, harmed(served) by fast elevators. So, Bordeaux would have meant its modernity and built the first American-style skyscraper in France.

Any information about the Promenade Sainte Catherine?
A new mixed use area in the heart of Bordeaux, next to the main shopping street of the city (Rue Sainte Catherine) with a lot of new commercial space.

^ Well, amart keeps their related thread up to date on pss-archi. The site is indeed right within the historic district. Although it's significant given that location, it just seems to be some part of the ongoing refurbishment of the historic downtown to me.

Besides, the work right there has definitely been complex. It has consisted in demolishing what I assume to be a couple of mid-20th century buildings (namely a former printing house and a large C&A store) and a few ordinary townhouses around to replace them by new buildings that necessarily fit with the surroundings, probably due to something like UNESCO's strict requirements, huh. It also involves some façadisme (that means preserving only historic façades while actually demolishing entire buildings behind them) to the Sainte-Catherine street.

Below are some of the more or less recent shots of the site from amart, to set the atmosphere.

A new building undergoing finishes in last January.
Like this thing, everything will be cladded in limestone to remain in tone with the surroundings.

More of the same under construction in March.

On the right, a little bit of the façade of a new building in the middle of some 18th century local limestone.

More U/C.

Still in March, demolishing the old C&A store (most of the former print house was gone to make way to what's U/C above yet).

Refurbishing some historic stuff around.

Construction keeps going...

Showing some new paving stone in the surrounding streets.

This old school pavement was there yet.

Lol everything up to the ground is taken seriously in there.

More refurbishment on the right.

Latest pictures dated May 1. Still a mess of demo, some construction and renovation here and there...

Mah of course, unlike amart who's a local, I don't have the accurate configuration of the area on my mind right now, as Bordeaux's downtown is a maze of streets and alleys.

Nothing in Sainte-Catherine will be as affordable as what's been previously showed in this thread anyway. It's upscale and meant for the better off because of the location. And that is actually tiny compared to masterplans to redevelop brownfields outside the historic core. After having slept for way too long, Bordeaux's been ranked one of the fastest growing cities in the country for the last couple of years, if I remember well they reported. And if nimbys and the forever slower national economy don't cause too much harm, we might get some highrises from Euratlantique. That's locally by far the main plan for larger developments.

__________________
psst... A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. (John 13:34)
I like bass. Give me some.

Once more, renderings are a bit too many unlikely visual effects, so those don't say anything much to me. They're just still showing that Euratlantique is planning some highrises for real. BTW, it is officially the largest masterplan in entire France. I thought it was Euroméditérranée in Marseille, but with Euratlantique's 386 ha (954 acres) and even a couple of more smaller masterplans over there, Bordeaux has more than what's necessary to be kept busy for the next 20 years...

__________________
psst... A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. (John 13:34)
I like bass. Give me some.

Sorry if those are too wide to your screen, but thankfully it seems well executed for real, showing some sleek materials and serious finishes.
These were posted by amart last month to the Bordeaux subforum of pss-archi.

If I remember well, there's still a lot of refurbishments to be done in the old downtown. Hopefully this kinda speeds it up.

__________________
psst... A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. (John 13:34)
I like bass. Give me some.

Given the location, the contents and the apparent quality of this thing, it's going to be successful...

However, there still are some rundown buildings to refurbish here and there within the historic core. It's been a tremendous work to refurbish it all, and since anything in there must be getting rather pricey now, I guess the old downtown needs to appeal to dwellers who can afford it.

__________________
psst... A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. (John 13:34)
I like bass. Give me some.

So, red wine tastes better when you open a bottle the day before you drink it. You should leave the liquid in touch with ambient air for a few hours. Then drink it while having a meal, especially with meat dishes and cheese.

This for example is a proper red wine decanter.

That's what the new wine museum is designed like, a trendy decanter of some kind.